The invention is concerned with an installation for catching or abstracting energy from winds, consisting of a wind-catching means carried by one or more lighter than air bodies, like one or more windmills or wind turbines which are fitted to a carrying structure carried by the bodies, and of at least one endless cable-rope-transmission by means of which the caught or abstracted energy is transmittable to the ground, and of a turntable which is pivotingly about a substantially vertical pivoting shaft fitted to an anchor point at the ground, which turntable comprises an cable-sheave for each endless cable-rope led over said sheave, which sheave is rotatably carried in bearings on the turntable and is adapted to supply the energy to a driven apparatus, like a generator, pump or the like.
As wind energy-catching means one or more rotors of the windmill-type may be used, but any other type, like a rotor of the Darrieus-type or an endless belt-machine, may be used as well.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,596 (Mouton c.s.) and installation of the above type is revealed. These and other types of wind energy catching means are furthermore described in chapter 2 of publication Nr. 3.323 (Wind Energy) edited by the Technical University at Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Furthermore, windmills carried by airships or balloons are known from the French patent specification Nos. 995,547 (Franck) and 2,313,577 (Kling).
The known structures have disadvantages as far as the anchoring is concerned. The present invention, making use of only one anchoring point, aims to provide for an always stable position of the airship-windmill, excluding the cables getting entangled or coming to cross each other.